Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D.: Emotions, Consciousness & Psychotherapy

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Unraveling the mystery of consciousness, including experiences nested within consciousness such as emotions reflects the leading edge of inquiry in a variety of fields including neuroscience, psychology and philosophy. Preeminent neuroscientist, author & musician Joseph LeDoux, PhD., a pioneer in the field of brain mechanisms of memory and emotion joins host Dr. Pete Kelly, C.Psych to discuss:

• Dr. LeDoux's model of emotions, including a comprehensive tracing of the perception of a stimulus through the central nervous system all the way through to the construction of the conscious experience of an emotion.
• the importance of a sense of self to the experience of emotions.
• the universality of the need to navigate threat contrasted with the very individual or even culturally bound experience of the emotion of fear
• construction of emotional schemas
• a brief review of the different forms and layers of consciousness
• implications of Dr. LeDoux's model for improving the effectiveness of psychotherapy, particularly exposure based-therapy.
• consideration of how subcortical, unconscious processes interact to produce conscious states from a therapeutic lens.
• advantages and disadvantages of the evolution of consciousness with a consideration of the implications for the fate of humanity.

Dr. Joseph LeDoux is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at NYU in the Center for Neural Science, and he directs the Emotional Brain Institute of NYU and the Nathan Kline Institute. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical School. His work is focused on the brain mechanisms of memory and emotion and he is the author of The Emotional Brain, Synaptic Self, Anxious and The Deep History of Ourselves. LeDoux has received a number of awards, including William James Award from the Association for Psychological Science, the Karl Spencer Lashley Award from the American Philosophical Society, the Fyssen International Prize in Cognitive Science and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award among many, many others. His book Anxious received the 2016 William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association. LeDoux is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, The Amygdaloids and performs with Colin Dempsey as the acoustic duo So We Are.
https://joseph-ledoux.com
https://www.amygdaloids.com/
http://www.soweare.net